Saturday, September 3

Nineteen Eighty-Four

As promised, getting the Kindle edition took only a few minutes. I dove in and was captured by Orwell’s powerful prose. It had been decades since I read the book, and fortunately for me, I had forgotten about 110% of it, so it was an all-new experience. It ends, sadly, with the protagonist’s total mental and spiritual defeat, but for quite awhile your hopes were up that he could make it and triumph against the dystopian state of the world. The upshot is that it was hopeless to fight the system because the system was so thoroughly established and meticulously maintained. Nobody is to be trusted, though again there are glimmers of hope. It’s a wrenching experience, but one you shouldn’t miss.

Occasionally I was shocked when the story mimicked what is happening today! Reminding me of my last blog post—Scary.

I wish Amazon could produce a flawless Kindle edition of anything. This one had page numbers popping up occasionally in the body of the work. Annoying, but the price is right. And you can’t beat the speed of delivery. I was thinking about which books people buy in the physical paper versions versus the ones they buy as ebooks. I came up with two reasons for the ebook: Nobody will see it on your coffee table and think you’re a radical or a creep, or belong in jail; the other is that you’re cheap.

Or three: You’re green. Or all of the above. What do I know! Ask Big Brother!